An American student imprisoned in North Korea was returned to his family blind, deaf and howling incoherently on a stretcher, his parents have said, in their first interview since his death in June. Fred and Cindy Warmbier’s son Otto, 22, had travelled to North Korea as a tourist in January 2016. He was arrested and accused of removing a propaganda poster from his hotel, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The student fell ill shortly after he was sentenced, doctors believe. The North Koreans said he suffered from botulism and had a violent response to a drug given to help him. He was denied visits by Swedish embassy officials, acting on behalf of the US, and it was not until June, when the extent of his illness became clear, that he was freed. He returned to his hometown of Cincinnati on June 13, with his parents having been told shortly before he landed that he had suffered brain damage. Otto Warmbier carried off the plane in Cincinnati “What we pictured, because we’re optimists, is that Otto would be asleep and maybe in a medically induced coma and then when our doctors here would work with him and he’d get the best care and love that he would come out of it," said Mrs Warmbier. Mr Warmbier continued: “We walked over to the plane, the engines are still humming, they had just landed. “When we got halfway up the steps we heard this howling, involuntary, inhuman sound. We weren’t really certain what it was.” Mrs Warmbier told Fox News on Tuesday that the howling sound so terrible she ran off the plane. “Otto had a shaved head, he had a feeding tube coming out of his nose, he was staring blankly into space, jerking violently,” said Mr Warmbier. “He was blind. He was deaf. As we looked at him and tried to comfort him it looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth.” Warmbier was taken to hospital, but died six days later. Fred Warmbier at a press conference on June 15 North Korea denies torturing the student, but his parents said Pyongyang’s actions were “inexcusable”. “We see North Korea claiming to be a victim and the world is picking on them, and we’re here to tell you North Korea is not a victim,” said Mr Warmbier. “They are terrorists. They kidnapped Otto, they tortured him, [and] they intentionally injured him." He added: “It was astounding to Cindy and I to discover that North Korea is not listed as a state sponsor of terror. We owe it to the world to list it to North Korea as a state sponsor of terror.” In June the state department announced that it was banning US citizens from travelling to North Korea, with effect from September 1. On Sunday the White House announced that North Korea was being added to its travel ban - a largely symbolic move, given that almost no North Koreans travel to the US. Diplomats are exempt from the ruling. President Donald Trump, who has previously talked about Warmbier's treatment in stark terms, and criticised the Obama administration for not doing more to help, tweeted about the interview. “Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea,” he said.

This article first appeared on the Cato Institute site. On Monday we released one question from the forthcoming national Cato 2017 Free Speech and Tolerance Survey of 2,300 Americans conducted by the Cato Institute in collaboration with YouGov. The national survey finds that a solid majority, 61 percent, of Americans oppose firing NFL (National Football League) players who refuse to stand for the national anthem before football games in order to make a political statement.

Liz Petrone hit a breaking point when she took to Facebook to give outsiders a glimpse of the reality of her life as a working mother of four young children. Petrone, 38, of Syracuse, New York, detailed in nearly 400 words all that she accomplished in one morning before arriving at her full-time job at an IT company at 9 a.m.

Eight-year-old Dante Daniels would be starting his second day of 3rd grade, and his 7-year-old sister would be embarking on day two of 2nd grade. According to the criminal report, Deandre was "engaged in the crime of committing a lewd act" on Dante's little sister when the 8-year-old stepped in to protect her. Deandre also reportedly attacked the little sister with a hammer and a knife as well as Elizabeth.

An autopsy report has revealed how a model was scalped and drained of blood, in a murder branded unprecedented “outside of wartime”. Comic book writer Blake Leibel, 35, is charged with the murder of the mother of his child, Ukrainian-born Iana Kasian, 30. The murder took place in May last year and Mr Leibel, the heir to a plastics and property fortune, could be given the death sentence if found guilty, due to the severity of the crime.

Russia’s armed forces in the country’s far east have kicked off a large air drill near borders with China and North Korea that will culminate with a practice air bombing, state news agency Itar-Tass said Tuesday. The drill will draft the aviation of Khabarovsk region which spans a considerable stretch of Russia’s Pacific coastline and Primorie region, which has Russia’s short land border with North Korea, according to a military statement made to Itar-Tass. The statement did not specify what number of units would participate but confirmed that Su-35 and Su-30 fighter jets, as well as Su-24M2 and Su-25 bomber jets would be involved.

The widow of a former NFL player who died while serving in the U.S. Army issued a powerful response to President Donald Trump using her husband’s name to criticize athletes who protest the national anthem.

The bridge of my nose is starting to collapse under the weight of the augmented reality glasses I'm wearing. While VR continues to underwhelm, AR is becoming a larger part of our lives thanks, in part, to Pokémon, Apple's ARKit and Google's Tango. Or maybe you're a sports fan new to San Francisco and can't find the ballpark.

Nearly 50,000 people have fled the Mount Agung volcano on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, fearing an imminent eruption as dozens of tremors rattle the surrounding region, officials said Monday. Waskita Sutadewa, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency in Bali, said people have scattered to all corners of the island and some have crossed to the neighboring island of Lombok. Indonesian authorities raised the volcano’s alert status to the highest level on Friday following a dramatic increase in seismic activity. It last erupted in 1963, killing about 1,100 people. Thousands of evacuees are living in temporary shelters, sports centers, village halls and with relatives or friends. Some return to the danger zone, which extends up to 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the crater, during the day to tend to livestock. Officials have said there’s no immediate threat to tourists, but some are already cutting short their stays in Bali. A significant eruption would force the closure of Bali’s international airport, stranding thousands. (AP) See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr .

After moving from Ukraine to Los Angeles in 2014, 30-year-old model Iana Kasian 35-year-old graphic novelist Blake Leibel, who later became her boyfriend. Leibel's family come from money and he is the heir to his father's million-dollar property fortune in Toronto, Canada.